Page 38 of To Free a Soul (Duskwalker Beginnings #2)

“Then what reason do you have for doing it?” she snapped without pulling away. Instead, her nose scrunched in anger, and he found it cute that she thought she could be scary. “I’m not desperate or pathetic enough to be... to be pity fucked !”

The snarl that tore out of him was rather beastly, even for him. He gripped her jaw a little tighter and bared his fangs.

“Because I like it!” Weldir roared. “Because the way you tremble when you come stirs me in ways I cannot fathom.” He pushed his thumb up to shove her head to the side, exposing her neck to him.

“Because when you’re close, your heart’s rhythm is so erratic that it pulses from you like an erotic drum and fills my realm entirely.

And your little pants... your breaths, so shallow and cute, always come out in raspy, long draws when you’re about to moan.

I know every inch of your body and how it twitches, how it shivers, and how it dips under any caress. ”

Weldir drew his clawed thumb down her pulsing jugular, hating that it was rapid for the wrong reason. Yet, like her body remembered his touch, the side of her neck prickled with goosebumps.

“Admittedly, I began this simply because it was something you desired, with little care for it, but that changed.” When he drew his thumb up, and she gave a shiver at his claw tickling her skin, he perceived pressure across his face – as if he might have grinned at how honest her body was.

“Your body is such a lusty thing. I may not be able to feel pleasure, but I experience it through you. In the way your eyes grow soft and dazed, or how you stretch into my touch for more without meaning to.”

Weldir released her gently, supporting her chin as it lowered to a comfortable position.

He pulled back and dipped his head once more to show her he was looking down her body, and his gaze fell on her soft, generous breasts.

Her nipples had hardened through her dress, giving away that she was aroused by his words, even if her slack-jawed expression didn’t.

“I may not be able to feel desire, or your touch, or the warmth of your body, but I experience it within my mind.” He shot his gaze up to greet her puzzled stare.

“And my mind is rather perverted, little human.” Then he purposefully dabbed his tongue at the seam of his lips seductively, like he’d seen some humans do. “And I very much enjoy watching you.”

For once, he liked her silence.

She wasn’t arguing with him, wasn’t shouting at him. She was stunned speechless.

Had she not desired to leave last time, I would’ve told her all this. He hadn’t wanted her to think she was alone in all this, but she refused to speak with him, and Weldir refused to have this conversation alone in his darkness. I would have told her because... I tire of hiding it.

He hadn’t wanted to lose those moments of bonding with her. Each time, no matter how small it was, he felt they were breaching the distance between them. He grew more infatuated, and she seemed to soften towards him.

Enough to stay for prolonged periods in his realm.

Enough to remain at his side, rather than scorning him and running away.

So, at the risk of losing it all, Weldir had decided his honesty was the only solution. If he were to be rejected beyond that, if his thoughts and feelings were irrelevant, then at least he would know he tried everything.

Well, almost everything. Weldir would never tell her about his cave of memories, and how many sculptures he had of her. He didn’t want his obsession with her to be that intimately understood.

He thought she might run off scared. She’d definitely be mortified, if this situation had taught him anything.

Maybe I could try one last thing?

“But if my unfeeling touch is so abhorrent to you, if it matters that much to you, then you will at least find pleasure by yourself,” Weldir stated firmly.

Lindiwe covered her chest with a frown. “What do you mean?”

“Whether it be by my hand or your own, you will satisfy your desire.” Humour radiated through his mist when he lowered his voice and said, “I don’t think you should deny your hungry little pussy that. It is rather greedy for attention.”

Her eyes widened as her lips parted around a wordless protest. Then the brown in her cheeks and chest reddened, and she squirmed bashfully.

She’d done a poor job of hiding her breasts, and he witnessed one nipple harden further.

Her heart also took on a familiar rhythm, one that was often accompanied by her arousal.

Weldir tilted his head. Does she like being spoken to like this? What did the humans call it? Dirty talk?

Lindiwe kicked back to get away from him, uselessly, as his tendril still had a solid grip on her. In retaliation, he extended it so it would tickle the sensitive bundle of nerves beneath her calf muscle.

“What? In front of you?”

“Why not?” he asked. “If you don’t want my touch because I cannot feel it physically, then I want to enjoy your pleasure in the way I always have, by watching you.

” Then he gave a hum as he tried to remember all the human memories he’d delved into.

“This isn’t an uncommon desire. You humans watch each other masturbate all the time. ”

“Yes! But I’ve never...” She trailed off and bit her lip.

“Oh, I know, Lindiwe. I’ve always wondered why you never sated your desire by yourself.”

Her gaze flicked to the side as she gripped the skirt of her dress nervously. Her flush of embarrassment deepened. “It just... we were taught... it feels... and the worry that you might catch me kind of...”

It took Weldir a moment to understand, and he had to sift through many possible reasons as to why she’d be against it.

He sighed. “If you tell me it has to do with that pesky faith of yours...”

Her lips tightened, and she didn’t deny it.

All the fun he’d been having in teasing her fucking died so quickly he bit out a growl. Instead, he was horribly angered and annoyed, and an emotion he wasn’t used to scattered through his mist.

Possessiveness, and perhaps a touch of jealousy.

He yanked her closer by his will until her chest butted up against his, and he looked down at her.

“The only god that matters to you now is me ,” he rumbled, holding her doe-eyed stare.

“And I am telling you to touch yourself.” Then he lowered his head until he was right at her ear and growled, “And I’m not letting you out of my realm until you fucking do. ”

A strangled, shivering moan escaped her, and she lifted her shoulder like she wanted to escape his voice speaking low in her ear. The temptation to nip her earlobe struck him, but she apparently didn’t want his touch, so he didn’t.

“It’ll be weird if you’re doing nothing and just watching me,” she whisper-shouted at him.

“I would find it exciting. Rather than my fingers deep inside you, it would be your own, and then you can feel for yourself how wet you get. So much so that you leave droplets of it in my realm.”

He pulled away from her and put space between them because if he continued to be within reaching distance of her, he was going to touch her.

Lindiwe was lucky he couldn’t feel desire.

If this was what his mind was like without being physically aroused, he could only imagine what it’d be like if he was.

“Would it make it easier if you couldn’t see me?” Weldir asked, casting his body elsewhere while stripping his sight so it remained.

“No!” she yelled, before realising how quickly she’d thrown the word out. “I think I’d feel worse, to be honest. I want to know where you are.” He brought his body back, and her shoulders lost some of their tension. “I don’t understand where this is all suddenly coming from.”

“It’s not sudden. You just haven’t been privy to my innermost thoughts.”

“Then why not tell me sooner?”

“Because I never know with you!” Weldir roared.

He threw his hands downwards while gesturing at himself.

“I didn’t know if learning all this would upset you or not.

If you were just trying to make the process of offspring more enjoyable without wanting anything more, and I thought your reluctance to take pleasure by your own hand was simply because you didn’t feel the need to, despite how confusing I then found how much you liked it when I touched you.

You are my mate, and I don’t understand you.

You are infuriating, and I have made many mistakes.

Fuck, Lindiwe, I have been trying for years to better our matebond.

So if I must only be a witness to this part of you, so long as your gaze remains soft towards me, I’m content to have it this way.

” Then his voice took on a dark edge, as he quietly warned, “But I will witness it, or so help me, I will keep you trapped here in my realm and use everything within my power to tease you and break you until you crave my touch once more.”

She’d already stated he could use his tendrils on her to create offspring, so he would use them to touch her, as they were not technically a part of him. They were just a physical manifestation of his mana.

He winced when he realised he’d threatened her with entrapment, when he’d vowed to himself he never would again.

But he was at the absolute end of his fucking patience, and he would make this female bend to his will for once.

He usually admired how headstrong she could be – it was what made her so resilient and determined, so brave and strong – but it was vexing when it was cast at him.

For once, he wanted this female to cave to him. Be soft, pliable, and give him what he craved. To give him... something.

Regret shimmered through his mist, knowing he likely just did irreparable damage to her trust. She told me she’s worried about being in my realm because I’ve imprisoned her in it before.

He’d only done so once, and he’d been eating those actions ever since like they were a poison he couldn’t escape.

He steeled himself to apologise, to tell her he actually wouldn’t do that again, and to try to assuage her fears regarding this. Something he should have done long ago.

Her dress inched up her legs bit by bit as she bundled it in both her fists. His head reared back when he darted his gaze up to her face to find she’d bitten her bottom lip, and her brown eyes had a heated glint to them.

Somehow, the slow glide of the material climbing up her legs made it more sensual than it really should have been.

“You should have just been honest with me,” she murmured. “I can’t read your mind, Weldir. I thought you didn’t want anything more beyond what you asked of me in exchange for protecting my soul.”

“It’s not like you have tried to communicate with me either,” Weldir answered with a huff. “You offer silence when you’re angered.”

Lindiwe’s creeping fingers halted, and she cocked a brow at him. “Do you want to argue about my failings, or do you want me to do as you have asked?”

Weldir promptly snapped his fangs shut.